An Exchange For Happiness
by thelilacfield
Summary: "You know they say that whenever you catch a falling leaf, you get a happy day? I want to give them to you because the only way I'll have happy days is if I know you're having them."


So this was originally written on tumblr as a gift for Bobbi, and I hope you guys all enjoy it too!

FYI: Julian and Ella are Kurt's roommates in my head, because I can't accept Kurt and Rachel living together without Santana there too. My head is a strange place.

* * *

"Kurt, why are there leaves in your desk drawer?" Kurt looks up from adjusting the towel hanging loose on his hips to see Julian sitting on his bed, flipping through the bunch of leaves in soft umbers and vibrant reds and dappled oranges and spotted yellows fanned out in his hands.

"Why are you in my room? Julian, I only just got out of the shower! Go bother Ella until I've at least put some clothes on!" Kurt exclaims in horror, immediately tightening the towel and tugging the separate towel slung around his neck down over his chest.

"It's not like I care whether you're naked or not, I wander into Ella's room when she's naked all the time and she doesn't give a damn," Julian says lightly, brushing off the issue with an airy wave of his hand. "Why do you have a collection of leaves? Is that nature-inspired designing thing you were waxing eloquent about over Thai food last night going further into nature than you explained?"

"Ha-bloody-ha," Kurt says, voice heavy with sarcasm. "Actually, Blaine gave them to me." At Julian's blank look, he continued, "My boyfriend? Arriving for a visit in about ten minutes? You're banned from my room on Friday nights because I'm Skyping with him? Ring any bells?"

"Oh _right_, yeah, that Blaine, I know who you mean," Julian says triumphantly. "So wait, your absolutely fantastically orgasmically perfect boyfriend gave you a bunch of leaves when you came out here? _What_?!"

"Let me explain," Kurt soothes. "Um…can you, like, turn around so I can put some clothes on, and then I'll explain. I'm not sitting on my own bed wearing nothing but a towel with anyone except Blaine."

* * *

"I don't want you to go," Blaine whispers tremulously, hands fisted in the front of Kurt's shirt. "I want you to get your dreams and I know I'm going to be so proud of you, but there's this little selfish part of me that doesn't want you to leave me. It wants to pull you into my bed and never let you leave."

"I want New York, but I didn't know it would hurt this much to leave you," Kurt says softly, wrapping his arms around Blaine and holding him close. "If you hadn't been hurt so badly at that Sadie Hawkins dance, you wouldn't have been held back and we'd have graduated together and we'd be going to New York together."

"But if I hadn't spent two weeks in hospital and another six at home I wouldn't have transferred to Dalton and I wouldn't have met you, and I'd happily take living a year without you over never meeting you at all," Blaine replies, tears staining his cheeks as he lifts his head from Kurt's shoulder, wipes his eyes with the back of his hand, sniff and attempts a sweet smile. "I love you, Kurt."

"I love you too," Kurt says, voice breaking over the words as he blinks frantically to hold back the tears, falling back onto the mattress and bringing Blaine with him, legs and feet tangled together, Kurt's arm thrown loosely over Blaine's waist, hand fanned out over Blaine's stomach, Kurt's nose buried in the thick ungelled curls at the base of Blaine's neck, eyes closed, breathing Blaine in, breathing in the scent of them together.

"I have something for you," Blaine whispers after a long moment of silence but for the soft music of their synchronised slow breathing, sitting up slowly. Kurt sits up with him, smiling as Blaine squeezes his thigh in reassurance as he leans down to scoop something up from the carpet. "You know they say that whenever you catch a falling leaf, you get a happy day? Brittany's sister just got fired and Britt wanted to make her better, so me, her, Tina and Joe went up to the woods on Thursday night after Glee and ran around like little kids for three hours, shrieking and falling over stuff and we all caught leaves. And I want to give them to you, because the only way I'll have happy days is if I know you're having them."

Kurt blinks wet eyes rapidly, trying not to let the tears fall as he breathes in shakily and lets the leaves, in their rainbow of beautiful rustic autumnal colours spill through his fingers and onto Blaine's bed. "Blaine…_thank you_," he whispers, a single tear carving a shining line down his cheek. "H-how many are there?"

"Forty-nine," Blaine says, picking up one of the small orange leaves and tucking it behind Kurt's ear, smiling with tear-glazed eyes. "That's how long it is until I come to visit you. And, if we haven't grabbed every leaf from the wood by then, I'll bring you enough to give you happy days until you come home for Thanksgiving. And then I'll give you enough to last until Christmas, and then until Valentine's Day, and then until-"

"I love them!" Kurt tackles Blaine as he starts to ramble on, pinning him down into the bed as he hugs him tightly, smiling into the crook of his neck. "I love you. Thank you for my happy days. But you know I won't really be happy until I'm with you again."

"We'll cope, we can do this, we'll figure out how to do long-distance, and we'll totally kick ass at it," Blaine says, joking to reign in both their emotions. "I'm going to miss you so much. And not just the kissing and the touching and all the sexual stuff, but ordering coffee with you and dancing with you in Glee and seeing you around the school all day and playing with your hair when Mr. Schue's being boring and…everything. You're everything, Kurt."

"You're _my_ everything," Kurt promises, lacing their fingers together. "I'm already counting down to you visiting. Just wait 'til you meet my new roommates, I think you'll really like them."

"I look forward to it," Blaine whispers, and the leaves are scattered across the duvet, forgotten and drifting along on the phantom breezes playing through the room, when Kurt kisses him, their tears mixing hot and salty on their pressed-close faces as they fall back into the mattress.

* * *

"Kurt!" Ella yells from the front room. "Blaine's here. On a side note, Julian, get your ass out here and put a jacket on, we're going out for roughly the entire weekend!"

Julian drops the leaves, still smirking incredulously at the increasing hopeless romanticism of Kurt's tale of fallen leaves and long drawn-out not-goodbyes, and rushes from the room. By the time Kurt's checked his still-damp hair in the mirror and fixed his hastily-buttoned shirt, which has at least three buttons done up wrongly, Julian and Ella are out of the door with hasty goodbyes, disappearing in a flutter of a long red scarf and a waft of ridiculously strong perfume.

Blaine is standing by the closed door, suitcase in hand, looking absurdly young above a thick Dalton regulation scarf and collar turned up against the wind that's brought a slight flush to his cheeks, eyes glittering and a smile turning up his lips as soon as he sees Kurt. "I missed you so much," he whispers, and his eyes are dark with something Kurt recognises, knows only too well. "Kurt…" Blaine's voice slips lower as he whispers Kurt's name, and the word hangs in the air like a promise. Kurt is across the narrow little hallway in an instant, Blaine's hands flying from his pocket and the handle of his suitcase to wrap around Kurt's neck, the heavy leather case clattering to the floor and knocking over the umbrella stand as they kiss with weeks of pent-up longing, fast and hot and passionate.

Blaine's legs loop around Kurt's waist, hands fisted in Kurt's hair as Kurt somehow manages to find his way back to the door to his room without having to break the kiss, only opening his eyes once to see the door handle, blurry and right at the edge of his peripheral vision, and yank it down with unnecessary ferocity, staggering inside and collapsing them onto the bed.

Later, they'll curl up on the sofa together beneath a sweet-smelling blanket and smile incessantly as they exchange stories of their lives while they've been apart; they'll make breakfast together, bumping hips and singing snatches of lively love songs; they'll kiss sweetly over breakfast and eat their pancakes together, stealing glances at each other, Blaine's foot stroking Kurt's calf beneath the table; they'll explore New York together, and Kurt will take Blaine to his favourite coffee shop and they'll find a table and gaze into each other's eyes as they drinks, fingers laced together; Rachel will call with more roommate frustrations, Kurt will put her on speaker phone and Blaine, drunk and giddy with love and happiness and afterglow, will be forced to muffle his snorts behind his fingers as she wails her woes to Kurt; Julian and Ella will return with steaming, deliciously greasy pizza and quiz Blaine incessantly about his life and poke and prod him for stories about his relationship with Kurt while Blaine blushes and ducks his head bashfully and Kurt giggles and leans against Blaine, against his rock, draping himself over him like the most luxurious blanket; and they'll fall asleep in Kurt's bed like that, wrapped up in each other and completely in love.

But, for now, their usual sweetness and domesticity and all those qualities that have them teasingly nicknamed the old married couple will be thrown to the kerb like a cigarette butt, lost to gasps and moans, hands running over sweat-slick skin, relearning lines and contours, remembering the ways to touch and caress and kiss to drive each other utterly to heaven.

* * *

So yeah...leaves get happy days. And now I have a picture in my head of Brittany giving Blaine leaves because he didn't keep any for himself and he's miserable and missing Kurt. Hmm...

Aside from my thinking, hope you enjoyed and please let me know if you did! :)


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